Blood and Oil. In his book, Blood and oil, Michael T. Klare tells us that toward the end of World War II, FDR made a deal with Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia would keep oil flowing to the States and America would militarily protect Saudi Arabia – our blood for their oil. This pact has since… Continue reading Blood and Oil

Tax-free weekend a gift to retailers. BRAINTREE — They're calling it Christmas in August. Inundated with shoppers on a sultry, summer weekend, giddy retailers said yesterday that the state's first-ever Saturday and Sunday without a sales tax could end up being the most profitable weekend of the year, beating the $500 million in sales that… Continue reading Tax-free weekend a gift to retailers

Franklin, the Lightning Rod Known Round the World. Philip Dray explores the scientific accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin, who was celebrated for solving the age-old mystery of lightning. By WILLIAM GRIMES. [NYT > Books]

Education? Blah! It's All About Tourism!. The Detroit News ran a story this week about a bill being considered by Lansing that would mandate that schools start after Labor Day. The rational being that a longer summer would mean more tourism revenue. As explained by a representative of the Michigan Hotel, Motel & Resort Association,… Continue reading Education? Blah! It's All About Tourism!

Logan Versus Continental: Yeah, Right, It's About Security. Continental Airlines has been offering free WiFi in their President's Clubs for quite a while now (a service that I take advantage off whenever possible). Although, in truth, it's not actually free Wifi, because access to the lounges is paid for (usually an annual fee to Continental… Continue reading Logan Versus Continental: Yeah, Right, It's About Security

Typo theme tutorial. Geoffrey Grosenbach just posted his new Typo theme turorial. It looks pretty good, and manages to show how simple Typo themes really are right now. I’d really like to get the ability to override individual view files in place before the next major release. I haven’t looked into the guts of Rails… Continue reading Typo theme tutorial

The US Lowers Expectations in Iraq WP . An interesting article on how the administration is lowering expectations over what can be achieved in Iraq. Frankly, I doubt that this new logic has made its way to the President. “The terrorists cannot defeat us on the battlefield,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “The… Continue reading The US Lowers Expectations in Iraq

Getting RID of that annoying wallpaper. I was remoting into a Dell OEM to test Sean's instructions [and yes, the work but I'd recommend that you put the data files on a D: or other drive] and got majorly slowed down by that annoying Dell wallpaper that takes forrrevver to resolve while you are remoting… Continue reading Getting RID of that annoying wallpaper

Open. The second element of COFFEE Development is Open. The heart of open development is participating in the software community by using, supporting, and contributing shared code. Looking through the most simplistic lens possible, there are three basic approaches to development:… [Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey]

37 Signals gets marketing credit. One of the software entrepreneurs that I really like is 37 Signals. They are doing everything right that I can see and it's nice to see they are getting the credit for that. These guys are outmarketing companies many times bigger than they are.  [Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]